ART WITH MS K

Pumpkins Inspired by Yayoi Kusama

Ever since I found out that the artwork of Yayoi Kusama will be displayed at the High Museum in 2018 I have been HYPED. There is so much to love about this artist – from the fact that she is a woman to the fact that she has been creating artwork (paintings, sculptures, installations – you name it!) for several decades, any way you look at it Yayoi Kusama is impressive. I love her bold graphic style and now, so did my second graders! We began by looking at some of her artwork and noticing that she often creates sculptures of pumpkins that have polka dots.

We bean our own version by drawing a pumpkin on construction paper. Students could choose any color they wanted because Kusama’s pumpkins are often multi-colored or other colors besides orange. I showed students how to draw a pumpkin by making an oval in the middle with curved lines on the sides.

After drawing, students used white paint to go over their lines. Then, they dipped a marker cap and stamped to make polka dots.

A colorful pumpkin patch:

The next week, student carefully cut out their pumpkins and glued them to another piece of construction paper. Then, they drew geometric shapes (triangles) in the background and traced over the lines with markers.

This was such a fun project and a really great twist on making pumpkins. Way to go 2nd graders!